Where Displays Matter

There are some questions that I tend to ask the Echo that could be answered without me needing to ask — if there were a display:

• What’s the time?
• What’s the weather?
• How long is the commute to work?
• What’s next on my calendar?
• How many days until [big event]?

If someone had an afternoon and some technical know-how, they could build such a display using a raspberryPi, low cost monitor, and a service like yodeck.

If a display is to be used in the home, some features that could be useful are:

• Blue light filter for night
• Automatic dimming at night
• Confirmation of wake up

The Echo Show is due to ship later this month, so it’ll be interesting to see if the information that is available at a glance will be customizable.